Pretty Boy Down
by CriminalMindsFanatic2015
Summary: Reid has a stalker, someone who has successfully created a drug that erases a man's memory. What secrets will Reid uncover when he finds the man hunting him down to make Reid his property?
1. The Book

QUANTICO, VIRGINIA

FBI HEADQUARTERS

"Spencer."

Doctor Spencer Reid, standing in front of the elevators, looked up from his phone and turned to face his friend and colleague, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau. She was moving towards him with a small smile on her face, her go bag draped across her thin frame and her long blonde hair around her shoulders, framing her slender, fair face.

"Want some company to the parking garage? I'm on my way there anyways." JJ said, reaching her arm out to hold the elevator doors open. Reid smiled back.

"Sure. Heading home so soon? Thought you'd stay behind with Hotch to finish the paperwork." Reid shifted his own go bag to his other hand, as they both stepped into the waiting elevator.

"Yeah, Hotch decided he didn't need me. And Henry is getting the flu, so I kind of need to be at home right now."

"Oh yeah? That sucks." Reid said, as he pressedthe "G" button for the parking garage underneath the FBI building. The doors closed and the elevator car began descending. There were a few moments of silence before JJ looked over at her friend.

"Hey."

Reid looked up at her, noticing the worry on her face. He knew what was coming. Of course he did.

"Are you okay?" JJ asked. Reid took in a sharp breath. Of course JJ would ask him if he was okay. She had seen how the previous case had affected him. A young boy had been kidnapped by his paranoid schizophrenic mother who had believed that everyone was out to harm her child. She thought she was keeping him safe by locking him in the basement where no one could touch him. Reid had been forced to tackle her in order to prevent her from hurting the boy.

Reid nodded curtly and cleared his throat. "Yeah, I'm, uh, I'm fine. Just..." Reid bit his lip, trying to explain to JJ what he felt. "It, uh, wasn't easy. I know how he feels, living with someone like that. I'm just glad my mom wasn't trying to lock me away or anything ike that. You know?" He gave a small, quick smile. JJ returned it sadly.

The elevator rang and the doors opened up to the garage, a large underground vault still filled with dozens of expensive looking cars. Reid spotted his at the far end, his horizon blue Volvo.

"Well, this is where we part ways." JJ said. "At least," she added with a smile. "until tomorrow."

Reid smiled back. "Yeah, have a good night, JJ. Say hi to Henry and Will for me, okay?" JJ nodded as they exited the elevator, Reid heading forward while JJ searched for her car to the left.

Digging into his pockets, Reid searched for his keys. He finally pulled them out when he reached his car, and inserted them into the drivers side lock. It was an old 1965 Volvo, so he didn't have one of the new-fangled electronic locks like everybody else had. But it didn't bother him. He loved the feel of manually turning the key and hearing that satisfying _clunk _of the door unlocking and granting him access.

Normally, Reid took the metro down by his house to get to work, but when he got to the station for his morning train four days ago, he was dismayed to find it temporarily closed due to maintenence on the tracks. That was why Reid was currently driving himself home in his own car. He didn't mind driving, he enjoyed it actually. But soon, the drive became monotonous, boring. He saw the same signs every day, listened to what seemed to be the same damn pop song over and over on the radio. At least on the subway, he saw a variety of interesting things. People going to work, teenagers going to school, drunks coming home from their friends houses, assuring their wives on the phone that, no darling, he hadn't been drinking all night and no, he didn't hook up with that skank down the road, the one who gave Bill Haytham herpes or HIV or whatever it's fucking called. Reid liked variety. The highway didn't offer much of that these days.

Lost in his thoughts, he almost missed the turnoff that would take him home, and as he quickly swerved to catch it, pissing off at least six different people simultaneously, he reflected on the case he had just finished.

Timothy Hope, a thirteen year old boy who had been living with his mother, suffering from paraoid schizophrenia, was like Reid in many ways. He was certainly smarter than most kids his age, but Spencer wouldn't call him a genius. He loved books, and he loved learning about everything. How everything worked, what made it work, all the different ways you could make it stop working, and then putting it back together differently, but still have perform the same tasks. He was a kind boy, never blaming his mother for what she did to him.

His mother, Caroline Hope, had stopped taking her medication because she couln't afford them anymore after welfare had cut her off because she had been claiming single, but her boyfriend, James Carlton had been living with her. It was through this paper trail that their eccentric-but-in-a-good-way tech analyst, Penelope Garcia, was able to find them pair in time. Reid struggled to tear his mind away from imagining what could have happened had they not found them...

Reid signaled a left turn and was finally on his own street. The large brownstone he had called home for almost ten years appeared out of the fog which had quickly rolled in almost as if by magic. Spencer parked the ancient vehicle in the driveway on the left of the house and turned the car off. He pulled the key out of the igniton and exited his vehicle, grabbing his go bag from the back before manually locking the car up for the night. As he walked to the front door, he noticed that his mailbox flag was up.

'_Weird,_' Spencer thought. It was twenty minutes after two. There should be no mail in the box yet. Curious, Reid approached the mailbox and slowly opened it. Inside was a small brown package. Frowning, Reid yanked it out and stared at the neat, decisive writing which proclaimed the package to be his. He tucked it under his arm and made his way into the house.

The rich smell of leather made its way to Spencer first, and all at once Reid's nerves settled. The warm atmosphere of home calmed him, and made him feel at ease. He unceremoniously threw his go bag near the door to the laundry room, before taking off his shoes and jacket and headed into the large living room. Flopping down on the big leather sofa, he gave himself a moment to relax. It had been a long, tough four days and Reid was just glad to be home. Plus, his muscles were sore from sprinting after James Carlton, (whom Morgan had eventually caught and whom was also involved in the kidnapping, albeit for different reasons) diving to the pavement to avoid being shot by Carlton, and ultimately tackling Caroline Hope to the ground before she could shoot her own son.

Reid's eyes drooped and he almost fell asleep before he remembered the package, which had been placed on the coffee table in front of him before collapsing on the couch. He stared at it for a few more seconds, running through different scenarios and guessing what the package contained. It was small, eight inches in width, fifteen inches long and four inches deep. It was hard, and it was heavy. Reid suspected a book. He picked up the package and studied it. On the back was a receipt. On it stated the date that it was delivered. Which was earlier today, at six o' clock pm. Mail never arrived at six in the evening.

Spencer tore open the package. His suspicions were right. It was a book. But it wasn't just any book. It was the complete third edition copy of Chaucer's _The Riverside_. The book looked worn, like someone had read it hundreds of times. The spine felt broken in Reid's hands and there appeared to be coffee stains on the top right corner of the cover. Reid opened the front cover and read the chilling message written on it.

_You can save her if you hurry. Tidewater Lock. She's waiting._

"Reid, calm down. Are you absolutley sure the message was for you?" Hotch said into the phone, rubbing his temple. He was still at the bureau, finishing up the last of the paperwork from the last case. He had sent JJ home about an hour ago so that she could look after Henry, whom she suspected was getting the flu. Hotch could hear the panic in Reid's voice as he spoke hurriedly, and sounds of what seemed to be Reid getting his coat and shoes on to investigate the claim that there was a woman in need in Tidewater Lock.

"Yes, Hotch! I'm absolutley sure! The package was addressed to me! It had my damn name on it!" Ried huffed out angrily.

"Alright. I grab the rest of the team and we will meet you down there, along with DC Police."

"Okay... Thank you."

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That's all I got for now. Stay tuned for more! :D


	2. The Body

"_You are the cause by which I die."_

-Geoffrey Chaucer, _Knight's Tale_

TIDEWATER LOCK, WASHINGTON D.C

Reid looked down into the center of the gate pocket of Tidewater Lock, an abandoned dam built in 1834 that connected to the Potomac River in D.C. Laying spread eagle, awash in the red and blue lights of DC police was a young woman, her nude body severely mutilated, her throat cut. Her fingers were missing, as was her head. Crime scene investigators swarmed the body, snapping pictures, laying measuring tape and collecting samples. Reid stood on the banks watching them, staring blankly at the woman whose life he had ruined. Hotch stood nearby, having been the first team member to arrive. He watched Reid carefully, studying his behaviour. He could see the young agent was deeply upset, and probably feeling guilty over the Jane Doe's untimely demise.

'_This is all my fault,_' Reid thought bitterly. '_If I hadn't opened the package sooner..._'

Reid barely noticed Hotch walking towards him until he was standing directly in Reid's line of view. The younger agent turned his head to face his boss, eyes blank and filled with guilt.

"Reid," Hotch started. "It wasn't your fault-"

Reid, who had been holding in his sobs since he arrived, let one slip out. Tears began spilling from sad brown eyes, and Reid held a hand to his mouth to prevent anymore gasps from escaping. Hotch placed his hands on Reid's arms, forcing the younger agent to look at him.

"Reid." He said. "It is not your fault. It's not," he added when Spencer started shaking his head, attempting to interupt Hotch. "You can't let this eat at you, because it won't take long to consume you."

"Hotch, this woman is dead because of me. Because I delayed in opening that stupid package!" Tears dripped off Reid's chin and onto the purple scarf he had hastily wrapped around his throat as he stared hard at the senior agent. Hotchner simply shook his head.

"No. She isn't dead because of you. Coroner says she died two days ago. The package only came to you last night."

Spencer stared disbelievingly at him. "What?"

Hotch nodded. "She was dead before the package was sent." Spencer sniffled, and looked around the lock to try and gather his thoughts. If she had been killed a day before the package arrived, then what did the message _'You can save her if you hurry_' mean? He looked back at Hotch.

"I... I didn't cause this?" He asked, his voice finally cracking with relief. Hotch shook his head. Reid sighed.

At that moment, the two of them heard more cars pulling up on to the grass alongside the dam. They turned to see Derek Morgan, JJ and Kate Callahan piling out of them, the same concerned expression plastered on their faces. JJ was the first one to reach them and she didn't hesitate to pull Reid into a crushing hug.

"Hey, JJ." "Hi, Spence. Are you okay? What happened?" JJ asked frantically, searching her friends' face for a sign that he would be okay.

"Yeah, Reid. Why don't you fill everyone in?" Morgan piped in. Before Reid could say anything, David Rossi's car pulled up, and the senior Italian agent unfolded himself from it and began hurrying across the grass, his arms out as if asking, "What the hell is going on?" Several police officers were roping the area off and creating a perimeter around the crime scene. Reid could see news vans pulling up and setting their equipment up hurridly.

"Reid?" Kate prompted. Reid sucked in a breath before launching into an explanation.

"I didn't open it until about an hour ago, but a package was delivered to my house last night, addressed to me but with no return address. Inside was a copy of Chaucer's book, _The Riverside_. Inside the book cover was a message, saying that I could save her if I hurried. It told me to come here, and that she was waiting."

"And the M.E puts her time of death around two days ago." Hotch added. The other four agents shared the same look of confusion. No doubt the same thought Reid had a few minutes ago was running through their minds as well.

"Well, that doesn't make sense. Why say that you can save her if she's already dead? Save her from what?" Kate asked, looking past Reid at the body now being loaded onto a gurney in preparation for the trip to the morgue.

"Maybe it'll be easier to answer that question when we find out who she is." Rossi said. The others nodded in agreement.

"Well, we won't find out standing here. Morgan and JJ, you two stay here and see what else you can find out about this place, specifically why he chose this area."

Rossi nodded. "It's not exactly secluded. Means he's either very stupid, or very bold."

"Or he knows the city, and when this area is populated and when it's not." Morgan chimed in.

"And he obviously wanted her found quickly." JJ said. "But he didn't want her ID'ed."

"Which is exactly why we need to move fast on this." Hotch remarked. "The less the press knows, the less panic we'll have."

Everyone gave a quick nod to each other before splitting up to do their respective jobs.

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Yeah, sorry. This is a sucky chapter for me. But I hope you guys enjoy it at least. I'll be posting more soon.


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